Online marketplace removes black magic and lottery adverts

Bornholmermarked.dk, a local online marketplace, has removed adverts offering black magic, Indian lotteries and unclear banknote-cleaning services after they were found on the platform, DR reports.

Among more than 8,000 adverts, users could find spells claiming to reunite them with an ex-partner or kill another person. Other adverts offered revenge spells and participation in an Indian lottery promising large winnings.

Some adverts also appeared to offer ways to clean stains from old banknotes. Their unclear wording could potentially point to a more criminal form of money laundering connected to fraud, money laundering or drugs, although that cannot be established from the adverts alone.

Frank Kierkegaard Hansen, an administrator at Bornholmermarked.dk, said the black magic adverts had surprised the platform. The adverts have since been removed.

“There are many strange adverts from time to time. More people are trying to defraud others and get money from them, but we have not experienced this with black magic before,” he said.

The platform has previously dealt with large numbers of adverts involving puppies, loan offers and similar scams. Hansen said administrators would now expand their searches for suspicious words and create new search agents to identify similar content.

Online platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, DBA and Bornholmermarked.dk are not responsible for ensuring that users are not defrauded, but they must act on reports of fraud.

Forbrugerrådet Tænk, Denmark’s consumer council, said Bornholmermarked.dk was doing more than required by proactively regulating potentially fraudulent adverts. The council said the platform was meeting its obligations by removing content when notified that it could be illegal, and welcomed its plans to strengthen enforcement of its advertising policy.